Estranged wife of Minnesota DOC chief charged with attempted murder of her adult son – Duluth News Tribune

ST. PAUL – The estranged wife of the Minnesota Department of Corrections chief is accused of premeditated murder of her adult son, who is disabled.

Julie Louise Myhre-Schnell, 64, told an investigator that she crushed her prescription anti-anxiety medication and emptied it into her son's feeding bag at his Vadnais Heights residence on Dec. 3, 2023, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday, Aug. 22, in Ramsey County District Court.

She confided to people that she “hoped he would go to sleep forever,” the lawsuit says. She later said it was because he had been “tortured” for several months by treatment for kidney stones and a kidney infection, her estranged husband wrote in a court document about a text message she had sent him.

After the December 3 incident, Myhre-Schnell told investigators that she had intended to kill her son, now 33 years old.

Paul Schnell, the DOC commissioner, said Thursday morning that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the charges against Myhre-Schnell.

Myhre-Schnell made his first court appearance Thursday and was appointed a public defender by Ramsey County Judge Edward Sheu.

The defense attorney said the current case was “literally” the only crime she was ever charged with. The attorney said Myhre-Schnell was a homemaker and there was no reason to believe she would cause harm beyond what was alleged in the indictment.

Sheu ordered an examination of Myhre-Schnell to determine whether she has a cognitive impairment or mental illness in order to decide her competency to stand trial.

Schnell and Myhre-Schnell married in 1987. They were foster parents when a three-month-old ward of the state came to live with them and became their son. He suffers from spina bifida and other medical problems that require a wheelchair, a ventilator and round-the-clock medical care.

He lived with Schnell and Myhre-Schnell into adulthood. They moved him into their dorm in Vadnais Heights in 2021.

Schnell has been DOC Commissioner since 2019. Previously, he served as police chief in Hastings, Maplewood and Inver Grove Heights, as well as a former St. Paul police officer and Carver County deputy sheriff.

In May 2023, Schnell and Myhre-Schnell separated and lived in separate apartments. It was “amicable,” Schnell wrote in a court document.

Myhre-Schnell filed for divorce on December 1, but the proceedings are not yet finalized.

After Schnell said he received information about what happened on Dec. 3, he filed a report about Myhre-Schnell and her son with the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office on June 13, according to the criminal complaint and Schnell's affidavit for a restraining order to protect her son against Myhre-Schnell.

Jean Pieri / St. Paul Pioneer Press file

The investigator interviewed Myhre-Schnell on June 15. She said she renewed her prescription for lorazepam, a medication used to treat anxiety, in early December and received 31 pills. She said when she visited her son's residential home, she crushed the remaining pills – the complaint did not say how many there were – and put them in a “slurry” of water and in his feeding bag.

“All along I knew I was going to try to do this,” the complaint says of what Myhre-Schnell told the investigator. “All night I was thinking: Am I really doing this? Am I doing this? Am I doing this? I can't believe I'm doing this.”

When the investigator asked her how she felt when she learned he would survive, she said, “I was scared they would find out through the toxicology exam, and I was probably trying to figure out what to do. I'm just going to go to jail.” She said she “deeply regretted that he survived,” according to the indictment.

Her son was admitted to the hospital on December 4, 2023, “due to his altered mental status, decreased responsiveness” and low blood pressure. It was determined that his blood did not have enough oxygen.

He was treated and released. The hospital did not conduct toxicology tests.

Myhre-Schnell, who had been visiting regularly, did not return to the dormitory.

The situation came to light when one of Schnell's adult daughters called him on May 30, frantically reporting that she had found a note on her mother's bedroom door that read: “Do not come into my room alone. I had to leave. I do not want you to find me alone. Please do not call 9-1-1. Do not resuscitate the animal…” Schnell wrote when she sought a protective order as his son's guardian.

Myhre-Schnell was hospitalized. Schnell later received a call from Myhre-Schnell's sister, who told her that Myhre-Schnell had told her that she had gone to her son's residential home in early December and attempted to give him an overdose of drugs, prompting Schnell to notify the sheriff's office.

Myhre-Schnell “had a long history of medication-assisted treatments for depression and anxiety,” Schnell wrote in the motion to the court. In the last quarter of 2023, “she began to struggle noticeably more with mental health issues. At that time, she frequently provided some of the daily care (of her son) because (the residential home) … was experiencing significant staffing issues,” Schnell wrote.

After her son was hospitalized and released, Schnell wrote that he organized all of his son's care because Myhre-Schnell “said she needed to step away from caring for (her son) to better manage her own mental health.”

The court denied Schnell's request for a protective order without a hearing on the grounds that his request did not allege an “immediate and present danger of domestic violence” against his son and scheduled a hearing on the matter for October.

On Thursday, a temporary restraining order was issued against Myhre-Schnell for domestic violence as part of the criminal proceedings.

The criminal complaint filed against Myhre-Schnell states that she sent her son a text message on August 6 telling him she had put her medicine in his feeding bag “in the hopes he would 'go to sleep forever.'” He responded that he was “undecided” about whether to delete her number.

The investigator spoke to Schnell's son about how he felt when he found out what happened, and Schnell said, “I made it, I'm still here.” But he also said that finding out what Myhre-Schnell admitted was “hard” and “a lot to process.”

He had previously told the investigator that he liked his apartment and that it had everything he needed. He talked about his friends and what he liked to do in his free time, such as volunteering at the zoo every week.

Myhre-Schnell, of St. Paul, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Ramsey County Jail.

The Scott County District Attorney's Office is handling the case to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest on the part of the Ramsey County District Attorney's Office.

During Thursday's hearing, Scott County Assistant Prosecutor Mike Hayek requested bail of $500,000 with conditions or $1 million without conditions, which Judge Sheu agreed to.